Ted Jackson / The Times-PicayuneThe Coast Guard will police towboats like the Mel Oliver, involved in the July 23 Mississippi River oil spill.

The Coast Guard has deservedly gotten a public relations beating since a July 23 Mississippi River oil spill exposed serious violations and lax oversight in the towing industry.

The incident occurred four years after Congress ordered the Coast Guard to crack down on the towing industry. Yet the agency is not set to launch a permanent inspection program until next year.

Realizing that safety cannot wait, Coast Guard officials are starting an interim inspection effort -- and they deserve credit for moving in the right direction.

Operation Big Tow, which is expected to last a year, will require periodic inspections of towboats along waterways extending from New Mexico to the Eastern Seaboard and the Great Lakes. The agency will focus on checking to see that operators are properly licensed and that towboats meet safety standards.

That would be a major improvement over the Coast Guard's current practices. The agency has a voluntary inspection program for towboats, but it doesn't issue fines and it doesn't track firms that fail to meet standards. Not surprisingly, no towboat firm has sought a Coast Guard inspection in two years.

As a result, critics argue, the industry tolerates safety and licensing violations -- leading to accidents like the July 23 spill. That night, an apprentice pilot without the proper license was at the helm of the towboat Mel Oliver when the boat pushed an oil-filled barge into the path of a ship on the Mississippi. The ensuing collision spilled 280,000 gallons of oil, closing the river for days and leaving billions in economic and environmental losses.

The Coast Guard promises its new effort will have teeth. Violators may face fines, license suspensions and may even have their vessels banned from waterways. That would be refreshing. It also would send a message that cutting corners at the expense of safety will no longer be tolerated.

Coast Guard officials also promise to track violations. That's good. But the agency should go further by making all records of the program public, including inspection logs, violations and any sanctions. Part of the problem with the industry's self-policing system is that neither the public nor the Coast Guard was regularly informed of violations. Making inspection records available would improve public confidence in the towing industry and the Coast Guard.

Agency officials said they designed their new program in consultation with industry groups. Towboat operators worry that inspections may disrupt commerce, and the Coast Guard needs to consider those concerns. But safety should be the priority.

Finally, the temporary inspections should not be an excuse for the Coast Guard to slow down the creation of the permanent inspection program Congress mandated in 2004.

The Coast Guard has vowed to issue the new permanent rules next year. Until then, Operation Big Tow should be a good warm up and a way to begin improving safety on our waterways.